Two sugar mills cases against Sharifs: All save one accused granted bail one by one by different LHC benches

ISLAMABAD: All but one accused have been granted bail one by one by different benches of the Lahore High Court (LHC) in the cases relating to Chaudhry Sugar Mills and Ramzan Sugar Mills, owned by the Sharifs, which have been instituted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Only young Yousuf Abbas, son of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s deceased brother, Abbas Sharif, is in prison, waiting for bail with his request pending disposal in the LHC. He was arrested along with Maryam Nawaz.

Though Hamza Shahbaz has been given bail by the LHC in the Ramzan Sugar Mills case, he could not be released as his similar plea in the alleged money laundering case of NAB is yet to be decided by the LHC, which will take it up on Feb 11. In February last, the LHC had bailed out Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and leader of the opposition Shahbaz Sharif in the Ramzan Sugar Mills and Ashiana Housing Scheme cases.

In the Ramzan Sugar Mills case, the NAB accused Shahbaz Sharif of issuing a directive as the Punjab chief minister for construction of a drain at a cost of Rs200 millions of public money in district Chiniot primarily for the use of this factory, owned by his sons Hamza and Salman.

The bench had observed that if this point of view of NAB was accepted then no MP could ever launch development projects in his/her constituency. Shahbaz Sharif had never been chief executive officer of the Ramzan Sugar Mills, it added.

The federal government appealed against the LHC order of granting bail to Shahbaz Sharif in the Supreme Court but withdrew its plea after sensing that it is not going to be accepted.

In October last, the LHC approved former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s bail plea in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case on medical grounds on the basis of which he went abroad for treatment. The court ruled that the ex-premier should return when he is certified by his doctors that he has regained his health and is fit to come back. Shahbaz Sharif and Nawaz Sharif had filed undertakings with the LHC committing that the former prime minister would return to Pakistan after full recovery.

Later in November last, the LHC bailed out PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills. She wants to go abroad and has applied to the LHC for permission but the government is sturdily opposing her request by keeping her name on the Exit Control List (ECL).

The bench that gave bail to Hamza slated the NAB prosecutor after pointing out holes in its investigation and institution of the reference. “Why was a supplementary reference filed against the accused when an existing reference had already been submitted? Please point out the laws under which a supplementary reference can be filed after an initial case has already been submitted. You do not have any answer to the questions that have been asked. Why are you wasting the nation’s time and money? If the investigation officer is unable to file something in 90 days, are they whiling away their time playing board games? Considering the standard of your inquiry, you should all be given the Pride of Performance Award”, the bench observed.

It asked the NAB prosecutor whether the drains in question were only made to benefit Ramzan Sugar Mills. “If that is the case, then you have a case for misuse of power.”

Not only in these bail matters but in all other similar cases, the LHC has been pinpointing grave flaws in the investigations done by the NAB, seriously jolting the very foundations of the cases. While granting bail to former senior bureaucrat Fawad Hassan Fawad, the LHC had knocked down all the four charges framed by the NAB against him in the assets beyond means case. He had been given bail in the Ashiana Housing Scheme along with Shahbaz Sharif.

Like Yousuf Abbasi, the bails pleas separately filed by former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal and Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Salman Rafique are also yet to be decided by the high courts. Same is the case with senior bureaucrat Ahad Cheema. All of them are behind bars due to the cases lodged by the NAB. He has been given bail in one case.